JAMES Kos produced an extraordinary performance at Alfie Byrne Park on Tuesday afternoon, when he amassed an astonishing haul of 6-4 in Blackrock College’s comprehensive victory over St Kevin’s CBS in the Dublin Schools’ Juvenile Hurling ‘C’ decider.

However, it wasn’t always plain sailing for the Williamstown school (who are best known for their achievements in rugby), and even though they had a strong breeze at their disposal during the opening period, they had to deal with an early deficit thanks to a brace of fine points from Kevin’s centre-forward Conor Berrigan.

The southsiders had struggled to find the target from their opening forays into enemy territory, but they firmly established their credentials courtesy of Kos goals from close-range in the 12th and 13th minutes respectively. This helped to boost the confidence of ’Rock, and following a 0-2 salvo by centre-back Stephen Dunne, Kos secured his hat-trick on the stroke of 20 minutes.

Industrious Kevin’s attacker Luke Nugent ended this scoring sequence with a pointed free three minutes later, but yet another Kos three-pointer ensured that ’Rock had developed a comfortable 4-5 to 0-4 interval cushion.

Despite being aided by a substantial wind when the action resumed, Kevin’s couldn’t contain the rampant opposition attack, and Kilmacud Crokes star Kos added two goals in the space of a minute to increase the ‘Rock advantage to all of 20 points just seven minutes after the restart.

It was becoming an exercise in damage limitation for an overwhelmed Kevin’s outfit, but they did have a chance to gain some solace 11 minutes into the half, when Nugent stepped forward to take a penalty.

He had to settle for a point from the resulting set-piece, though, and this was quickly cancelled out by a well-taken Kos effort. The tireless Berrigan registered his third score towards the end of the third quarter, only for ’Rock to reply with back-to-back points from the imperious Kos.

With ’Rock opting to introduce several substitutes before the end of the action, the closing moments were rather subdued. Kevin’s centre-fielder Eoin Carney produced an exceptional point-blank save from Mark Rogan, but a fourth Nugent point was their sole consolation in the latter stages of a game to remember for Blackrock College.